The movement of a bale plucker to and fro across a bale laydown produces a cyclic variation in fiber population in the fiber stream. The measured properties of the fibers from point to point along the flow line show considerable cyclic variation and the wavelengths of error are usually in the interval 100 to 1000 yards as measured in card sliver. The errors are so long that most normal blending devices fail to remove them and the effects of the variations can carry through to the dyed fabric. In this particular case, a mill was chosen that had no blending machine installed as a worst case scenario. Systematic samplings of the bales, the card sliver and subsequent products made from this sliver were made in such a fashion to permit analyses of time series. A convincing relationship was found between fiber micronaire variations in card sliver and the color measurement of fabric derived from the same samples.